Selective call communication system having adaptive voice data entry

ABSTRACT

A selective call communication system (100), such as a paging system (100), and a method therefor, for using a lexicon (134) for voice data entry in the selective call communication system (100) is shown. The system (100) associates a Voice User ID (206) to a subscriber ID (202) for one or more subscribers of the system (100). The system (100) accumulates user system statistics (208). Then, based on the accumulated user system statistics (208), the system (100) defines a lexicon (134) to include at least one Voice User ID (206) for the one or more subscribers for voice data entry for the system (100).

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates in general to selective call communicationsystems and more specifically to a method for providing voice data entrytherein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conventional selective call communication systems, e.g., paging systems,receive incoming calls from callers requesting to send messages toselected recipients. Callers typically enter their requests into thesystem in one of the following three ways. First, callers may use theirtelephones to provide DTMF signaling into the system to enter theirselective messages. Secondly, callers may use a computer with modem toprovide modem communication over telephone lines to enter theirselective messages into the system. Thirdly, callers may simply speaktheir requests to human operators that answer the telephones at amessage reception console. These operators then enter the informationdirectly into the system, such as by using keyboard entry, forcommunicating the messages to the selected recipients.

These conventional methods have certain disadvantages. For example, inthe first case, a caller may have to memorize a relatively long useridentification number (or PIN) for each requested recipient of a messagethrough the system. This can be a cumbersome procedure. In the secondcase, a caller utilizes a computing device and modem to perform modemcommunication over telephone line with a system. Callers may not haveready access to computers with modems for communicating with the system.Further, requiring callers to have a computer and modem forcommunicating messages to the system imposes an economic burden on them.Additionally, requiring callers to carry the devices on their person toeffect messaging can pose a logistical problem. In the third case,having a large group of operators receiving messages from callers andentering the information directly into the system can add significantcosts to a system as well as can delay the overall entry process. Thiswill adversely impact the commercial viability of the communicationsystem.

Thus, what is necessary is a new method and apparatus allowing callersto enter their requests into a communication system, such as a pagingsystem, in a user friendly, fast and efficient manner, and without theaforementioned disadvantages.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an electrical block diagram of a selective call communicationsystem in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary database organized for subscribers ofthe selective call communication system of FIG. 1, according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a message block diagram illustrating an exemplary message forthe selective call communication system of FIG. 1, in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a graph illustrating a rank ordering of subscribers of asystem based on user system statistics in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a first operation of the selectivecall terminal in FIG. 1, in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a second operation of theselective call terminal in FIG. 1, in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary selective call communication system, e.g., anexemplary paging system, according to a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention. The general operation of a communication system ofthe type shown in FIG. 1 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,311, issuedAug. 11, 1992, entitled, "Communication System Having Adaptable MessageInformation Formats", which is assigned to the same assignee as thepresent invention and is incorporated herein by reference. A telephonecaller 101 accesses a telephone input interface 104, e.g., a paginginput 104, of the selective call communication system 100 via the publicswitched telephone network (PSTN) 102. Once the caller 101 connects withthe telephone input interface 104 of the system 100, the caller 101 canaccess functions of the communication system 100 which are controlled bya controller 106. The controller 106 communicates via a bus 107 to othercomponents of the system 100. An operator console 108 allows a systemoperator to communicate through the console 108 with the controller 106.The system operator can also connect directly with the telephone inputinterface 104 to speak with a caller 101, if necessary.

A prompt generator 110 provides prompts to the telephone interface 104which are then coupled to a telephone caller 101. A prompt can be a toneor a series of tones. It can alternatively be a synthesized voice promptthat is coupled to the caller 101. In a third alternative, a prompt canbe a model communication sequence. The prompt generator 110 providessignaling to the caller 101 to generally guide the caller through aninput sequence.

A detector 112 can detect incoming DTMF signaling from a caller 101.Optionally, the detector 112 can include a modem signaling detector toreceive modem communication from a caller 101.

A speech digitizer 114 receives and digitizes incoming speech from thecaller 101. A digitized speech memory 116 stores the digitized speechfrom the speech digitizer 114. A speech playback unit 118 can play backthe digitized speech stored in the digitized speech memory 116 andcouple the playback audio to the operator console 108 to allow a systemoperator to hear the speech that was recorded and stored in the memory116. A message memory 120 stores the incoming messages from callers 101.A paging encoder 122 encodes the messages into selective callcommunication protocols, such as the POCSAG protocol or Motorola's FLEXprotocol. An output controller 124 couples the encoded messages to oneor more transmitter base stations 126 which can then deliver themessages over a communication channel 127 to one or more remote units128. These remote units 128 are capable of selectively receivingmessages that are addressed to specific remote units 128, such as pagingreceivers. The operation of paging receivers of the general type shownin FIG. 1 is well known and is more fully described in U.S. Pat. No.4,518,961 issued May 21, 1985, entitled "Universal Paging Device WithPower Conversation", which is assigned to the same assignee as thepresent invention and is incorporated herein by reference.

In the preferred embodiment, subscribers of the communication system 100are identified by a subscriber ID (or a subscriber PIN) which can beentered by a caller 101 while entering a request into the system 100 toselectively send a message to the identified subscriber. The subscriberID can be entered into the system 100 by a caller 101 by using thedetector 112, such as by using DTMF signaling or optionally using modemsignaling.

Alternatively, in the preferred embodiment, the caller 101 is capable ofspeaking a Voice User ID into the communication system 100. The VoiceUser ID is associated with the subscriber ID such that a caller 101 cansimply speak through the telephone input interface 104 into the system100 to select a particular subscriber as the recipient of a message. Toeffect this selection, the system 100 can utilize voice recognitiontechnology to reliably determine that a particular subscriber ID hasbeen selected from an incoming voice data from a caller 101.

To perform voice recognition on an incoming voice data from a caller101, the system 100 utilizes a Voice User ID lexicon 134 which islocated in a Voice User ID memory 130. This will also be called alexicon 134 or a lexicon memory 134. The lexicon 134 provides aselection of possible Voice User ID's available in the system 100 tomatch an incoming voice data from a caller 101. A Voice User ID database132 stores in Voice User ID memory 130 information for subscribers ofthe system 100 that can be selected using voice recognition. This willalso be called a database 132 or a database memory 132. The lexicon 134maintains a current selection of Voice User ID's for possible matchingwith an incoming voice data from a caller 101, while the Voice User IDdatabase 132 maintains comprehensive information for all users that canbe selected via voice recognition. The Voice User ID database 132 willbe more fully discussed below.

The controller 106 comprises a speech recognizer 136 which provides avoice recognition engine to implement the voice recognition selection ofone of the Voice User ID's in the lexicon 134 with respect to theincoming voice data from the caller 101. The speech recognizer 136compares the incoming voice data from a caller 101, after having beendigitized by the speech digitizer 114 and stored in the memory 116, tothe available Voice User ID's in the lexicon 134. The speech recognizer136 typically provides a series of probability results which identifythe likelihood that any one of the Voice User ID's in the lexicon 134would be a likely match to the "unknown" incoming voice data.

The controller 106 further comprises a speech decision controller 138.The speech decision controller 138 utilizes the probability informationresults from the speech recognizer 136 to make a decision with respectto an incoming voice data to determine whether there is a match to oneof the available Voice User ID's in the lexicon 134.

The controller 106 also comprises a system statistics monitor 140. Thesystem statistics monitor 140 keeps track of system statistics that area basis for maintaining a vocabulary of Voice User ID's in the lexicon134, as will be discussed more fully below. By monitoring the systemstatistics, the monitor 140 can maintain in the lexicon 134 those VoiceUser ID's which are most likely to be selected by a caller 101.

Typically, a small subset of the total number of subscribers to thesystem 100 is active during any particular time interval. That is, forexample, 10% of subscribers in the communication system 100 are likelyto be actively receiving messages at any particular time. By utilizingthis characteristic of the system 100, the monitor 140 can maintain asmall subset, e.g., approximately 10%, of the total number of Voice UserID's in the lexicon 134. The system 100 therefore adapts a voicerecognition function according to an updating lexicon 134 based onchanging user system statistics.

The speech recognizer 136 compares an incoming "unknown" voice data to areduced set of potentially matching Voice User ID's in the lexicon 134,which is smaller than the total population of subscribers for the system100. By comparing to the smaller lexicon 134, the system 100 tends toincrease its voice recognition accuracy thereby making more accuraterecognitions of "unknown" incoming voice data. This enhances the overallcall processing efficiency of the system 100 by successfully handlingincoming requests in an automated process. Furthermore, by comparingagainst the smaller lexicon the system 100 reduces the amount of timenecessary to recognize an "unknown" incoming voice data. By handlingeach call faster and more reliably, the preferred embodiments of thisinvention enhance the overall system's call handling efficiency andconsequently its commercial viability.

The system statistics monitor 140 can maintain different types ofstatistics information for the subscribers of the system 100. Thesestatistics, in the preferred embodiment, are maintained in the database132. As discussed above, typically 10% of the total subscribers to asystem 100 are active at any particular time. Another way of statingthis system activity is that over a predetermined time intervalapproximately 10% or less of the subscribers of the system 100 willreceive approximately 95% or more of the messages. For example, in a10,000 subscriber system 100 this would mean that only approximately1000 Voice User ID's at any particular point in time would be likelycandidates for recognition against an incoming voice data from a caller101. Therefore, the monitor 140, in a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention, maintains system statistics for the subscribers ofthe system 100 in the Voice User ID database 132 to be able to identifya subset of the total subscriber population that is likely to be arecipient of an incoming message request, as will be more fullydiscussed below.

Referring to FIG. 2, the database 132 is preferably organized for eachsubscriber of the system 100 to associate a subscriber ID 202 with apager address 204 and a Voice User ID 206 and a user system statistics208. For example, in FIG. 2, the subscriber ID "12345" is associatedwith pager address "775566". The pager address 204 selects a particularrecipient of a message in the system 100. That is, a pager address 204is coupled with a message data to provide a message that is sent to aselective call receiver 128 (FIG. 1). An example of a selective callmessage is illustrated in FIG. 3. There, a pager address information 302is coupled to a message data 304 to form a message which can betransmitted from the system 100 over the communication channel 127 toselect one or more remote units 128. The one or more selected remoteunits 128 would then receive the message and extract the message data304. Referring back to FIG. 2, the subscriber ID "12345" is associatedwith a Voice User ID 206 representing the speech for the name "Bill."Furthermore, the subscriber ID 202 number "12345" is associated with auser system statistics 208 which, for this example, is accumulated to anumber "19" over a predetermined time interval. A second exemplarysubscriber in the database 132 is identified by the name "Mary", and hasthe associated database information as shown. Mary's user systemstatistics 208 have accumulated to a number "2" over the predeterminedtime interval, which, for this example, is a much smaller number thanBill's user system statistics 208. Therefore, in this example, thesystem 100 could designate Bill as an active subscriber while it coulddesignate Mary as an inactive subscriber during the predetermined timeinterval.

One way of maintaining user system statistics 208 in the database 132 isfor the monitor 140 to accumulate the number of messages that have beenrequested to be sent to a particular subscriber over a predeterminedtime interval and maintain that statistic for that subscriber's recordin the database 132 as illustrated in FIG. 2. After a predetermine timeinterval has elapsed the monitor 140 can determine from the user systemstatistics 208 in the database 132 which Voice User IDs should beincluded in the lexicon 134.

For example, referring to FIG. 4, the monitor 140 can rank ordersubscriber IDs 400 with respect to user system statistics 401. Theranking shown is from highest usage to lowest usage. The monitor 140could group those subscriber IDs 400 that provide approximately 95% ofthe total system usage for a predetermined time interval. This group 402comprises a set of the most likely recipients of an incoming messagerequest and their Voice User IDs would be made available through thelexicon 134 for comparison against an "unknown" incoming voice data froma caller 101. The monitor 140 can periodically perform the ranking andgrouping functions to adapt a voice recognition function for the system100 according to an updating lexicon 134 based on the changing usersystem statistics.

A further refinement of the grouping process discussed above is to limitthe size of the group 402 to the smaller of the number of subscribersproviding approximately 95% of the activity in the system 100 or to 10%of the total number of subscribers in the system 100. In this way, thesize of the group 402 would be limited to less than or equal to 10% ofthe total number of subscribers in the system 100. The percentages usedabove are for exemplary purposes only, and other percentages may beuseful in accordance with the particular applications.

Additional refinements to the method utilized by the monitor 140 cancustomize system performance for particular situations. For example, themonitor 140 can maintain a predetermined usage profile for predeterminedtime intervals for subscribers of the system 100. During thesepredetermined time intervals specific subscribers could have definedtheir profiles to high or low likelihood of usage. A designation of highlikelihood of usage would increase a subscriber's priority to beincluded in the lexicon 134. On the other hand, a subscriber's usageprofile designating a low likelihood of usage for a predetermined timeinterval would lower the subscriber's priority for inclusion in thelexicon 134. This usage profile information, therefore, can provideanother basis for the system 100 to determine whether to include asubscriber's Voice User IDs in the lexicon 134.

Additionally, subscribers could be individually assigned a priority formessaging that could be utilized as a system statistic for determiningwhether their particular Voice User ID should be included in the lexicon134. For example, certain users could either pay a higher usage fee tobe assigned high priority service, or they could be designated asemergency message recipients which would entitle them to high priorityprocessing of message requests. Further, certain types of messaging maybe more likely at certain times and less likely at other time intervals.Hence, during a particular time interval those subscribers utilizing thecertain types of messaging may be more likely to receive messages andwould be accorded a higher priority for being included in the lexicon134. Therefore, as discussed above, a number of different types ofsystem statistics can be monitored by the monitor 140 for thesubscribers of the system 100 to determine which Voice User IDs toinclude in the Voice User ID lexicon 134.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when a caller 101provides a voice data into the system 100, as discussed before, thespeech digitizer 114 digitizes the voice data and stores it in thespeech memory 116. The speech recognizer 136 compares the digitizedvoice data from the memory 116 to all the candidate Voice User ID's inthe lexicon 134. Each of the Voice User ID's in the lexicon 134 isassigned a probability of a match to the "unknown" voice data from thememory 116. The speech decision controller 138 will determine from allthe probabilities assigned by the speech recognizer 136 whether there isa likely match to one of the Voice User ID's in the lexicon 134.

If a match is found, the speech decision controller 138 selects thesubscriber ID 202 (FIG. 2) from the database 132 that is associated witha particular Voice User ID 206 that matched the voice data from thecaller 101. Subsequently, the system 100 can prompt the caller 101, suchas by using the prompt generator 110, to enter a message data. Amessage, including pager address 204 coupled to the message data, isthen stored in the message memory 120. As discussed earlier, the pagingencoder 122 retrieves a message from the message memory 120 and providesan encoded message to the output controller 124 which then couples themessage to one or more transmitting base stations 126. The message istransmitted over a communication channel 127 for reception by one ormore remote units 128, such as by one or more remote paging receivers.

On the other hand, if the speech decision controller 138 cannotdetermine a likely match to any one of the Voice User ID's in thelexicon 134, then the controller 106 can alert a system operator throughthe operator console 108 and can route the voice data from the memory116 to the speech playback unit 118 to allow the system operator to hearthe caller's digitized speech. If the system operator can understand thecaller's selection then the system operator through the console 108 canenter the subscriber ID information and provide that information to thecontroller 106.

For example, the system operator after hearing the playback, can effecta lookup function by the controller 106 on the database 132 to determineif there is a match to one of the records in the database 132. This canbe accomplished, for example, by the operator inputting a lookup requestat a user interface, e.g., a keyboard, at the console 108. A videodisplay at the console 108 would display the result of the lookupfunction. The system operator through the console 108 can thencommunicate the selected subscriber ID to the controller 106. Thislookup process can be accomplished quickly while the caller 101 remainson the line waiting for a decision. Therefore, the system operator couldperform the lookup procedure without inconveniencing the caller 101.

However, if the system operator is not able to find a match in thedatabase 132, then the system operator can override the controller 106and switch in an audio path with the telephone input interface 104 todirectly communicate with the caller 101 and manually process thecaller's request. This normally would be a last resort. Typically, thecaller's request would be processed automatically by the system 100,without requiring intervention by a system operator. Therefore, theoperation of this system 100 would normally be fast and efficient, andwith minimal inconvenience to a caller 101. This enhances the commercialviability of the system 100.

Referring to FIG. 5, a flow diagram illustrates an exemplary process forthe controller 106 for adapting a voice recognition function for thesystem 100 by updating the lexicon 134 according to the changing usersystem statistics. Specifically, after initialization 502, the monitor140 captures 504 user system statistics, as discussed earlier, andstores them in the database 132. The monitor 140, after a predeterminedtime interval, determines 506 which of the Voice User IDs to include inthe lexicon 134. The monitor 140 then updates the lexicon 134 tocorrespond to the Voice User IDs included therein. In a preferredembodiment, as discussed earlier, the lexicon 134 can be updated tomaintain the Voice User IDs for the top 10% most active subscribersduring the predetermined time interval. The monitor 140 can determinethe Voice User IDs to include in the lexicon 134 and periodically updatethe lexicon 134 to adapt a voice recognition function for the system 100according to changing user system statistics.

Referring to FIG. 6, a flow diagram illustrates an exemplary process forthe system 100 for processing requests for sending selective callmessages from callers 101. The system 100 enters 602 this process byprompting a caller 101 to speak the caller's selection of a Voice UserId corresponding to a subscriber ID for the system 100. The system 100then digitizes and stores 606 a voice data received from the caller 101.The speech recognizer 136 performs voice recognition to compare thevoice data to the Voice User IDs in the lexicon 134. The speech decisioncontroller 138 then decides, at step 610, whether a match is found.

If a match was found, then the controller 106 selects the correspondingsubscriber ID 202 from the database 132. The system 100 then, at step614, prompts the caller 101 to enter message data. This can be handled,for example, by using conventional DTMF signaling from the caller'stelephone device. Once the system 100 receives and stores, at step 616,the caller's message data, it couples the message data with a pageraddress 204 corresponding to the subscriber ID 202 to store a message inthe message memory 120. The system 100 can then, at step 618, processthe message stored in the message memory 120 to encode and transmit themessage to one or more recipient remote devices 128.

On the other hand, if the speech decision controller 138 could not finda match, at step 610, then the controller 106 would activate the speechplayback unit 118 to playback the caller's voice data for an operator atthe system console 108. If the console 108 detects 622 a lookup requestfrom the operator then the system 100 performs 626 a lookup on thedatabase 132 and displays the result of the lookup to the operator atthe console 108. The operator can select a found subscriber ID at theconsole indicating that a match was found, at steps 628 and 612. Then,as discussed before, the system 100 receives and processes the caller'smessage data, and transmits the selective call message, at steps 614,616, and 618.

Lastly, if, after activating 620 the speech playback unit 118 toplayback the caller's voice data for the operator at the system console108, the operator can not understand the audible voice data, theoperator can request 624 at the console 108 to switch in direct audiowith the caller 101. The system 100 then connects 630 the caller 101with the operator at the console 108 to manually process the entry ofthe selection. After accepting the caller's selection of a subscriberID, and optionally also receiving message data from the caller 101, thesystem 100 then couples the pager address 204 with the received messagedata to store a message in the message memory 120. The system 100 thenprocesses, at step 618, the message to transmit the message to the oneor more selected remote units 128.

What is claimed is:
 1. A selective call communication systemcomprising:a database memory for storing a database associating a speechVoice User ID to a subscriber ID for one or more subscribers of theselective call communication system; a lexicon memory for storing alexicon including at least one speech Voice User ID that is associatedwith a subscriber ID for the one or more subscribers of the selectivecall communication system; a monitor, coupled to the database memory andto the lexicon memory, for monitoring user system statistics for theselective call communication system and accumulating the user systemstatistics in the database, the monitor further defining the lexicon inthe lexicon memory for including in the lexicon the at least one speechVoice User ID based on the accumulated user system statistics todetermine a subset of the more active subscribers, rank ordering the oneor more subscriber IDs according to the user system statistics, andgrouping a set of the rank ordered one or more subscriber IDs to includeat least one speech Voice User ID in the lexicon for voice data entry;an input for receiving a voice data; a controller, coupled to the inputand to the lexicon memory, for comparing the voice data to the at leastone speech Voice User ID in the lexicon for determining a match betweenthe voice data and one of the at least one speech Voice User ID of thelexicon, for selecting a subscriber ID associated with a matching speechVoice User ID for the selective call communication system, and forsending a selective call message to one or more recipient remote unitscorresponding to the selected subscriber ID; and a system consolecoupled to the controller and in response to the controller determiningthat no match is found between the voice data and the at least onespeech Voice User ID of the defined lexicon, the controller routing acall handling operation to the system console.
 2. The selective callcommunication system of claim 1, further comprising:a system consolecoupled to the controller and in response to the controller determiningthat no match is found between the voice data and the at least onespeech Voice User ID of the defined lexicon, the controller routing acall handling operation to the system console for assistance by anoperator.
 3. The selective call communication system of claim 2, furthercomprising:a speech playback unit, coupled to the system console and tothe controller and response to the controller determining that no matchis found between the voice data and the at least one speech Voice UserID of the defined lexicon, playing back the voice data at the systemconsole for audible reception by an operator.
 4. A paging systemcomprising:a database memory for storing a database associating a speechVoice User ID to a subscriber ID for one or more subscribers of thepaging system; a lexicon memory for storing a lexicon including at leastone speech Voice User ID that is associated with a subscriber ID for theone or more active subscribers of the paging system; a monitor, coupledto the database memory and to the lexicon memory, for monitoring usersystem statistics for the paging system and accumulating the user systemstatistics in the database, the monitor further defining the lexicon inthe lexicon memory for including in the lexicon the at least one speechVoice User ID based on the accumulated user system statistics todetermine a subset of the more active subscribers, rank ordering the oneor more subscriber IDs according to the user system statistics, andgrouping a set of the rank ordered one or more subscriber IDs to includeat least one speech Voice User ID in the lexicon for voice data entry; apaging input for receiving a voice data for selecting a subscriber IDfor the paging system; a controller, coupled to the paging input and tothe lexicon memory, for comparing the voice data to the at least onespeech Voice User ID in the defined lexicon for determining a matchbetween the voice data and one of the at least one speech Voice User IDof the defined lexicon, and for selecting a subscriber ID associatedwith a matching speech Voice User ID for the paging system; a messagememory coupled to the controller for storing a message including a pageraddress information associated with the selected subscriber ID; anoutput controller for sending the message to one or more recipientpaging units corresponding to the pager address information associatedwith the selected subscriber ID; and a system console coupled to thecontroller and in response to the controller determining that no matchis found between the voice data and the at least one speech Voice UserID of the defined lexicon, the controller routing a call handlingoperation to the system console.
 5. The paging system of claim 4,further comprising:a system console coupled to the controller and inresponse to the controller determining that no match is found betweenthe voice data and the at least one speech Voice User ID of the definedlexicon, the controller routing a call handling operation to the systemconsole for assistance by an operator.
 6. The paging system of claim 4,further comprising:a speech playback unit, coupled to the system consoleand to the controller and in response to the controller determining thatno match is found between the voice data and the at least one speechVoice User ID of the defined lexicon, playing back the voice data at thesystem console for audible reception by an operator.
 7. A paging systemcomprising:a database memory for storing a database associating a speechVoice User ID to a subscriber ID for one or more subscribers of thepaging system; a lexicon memory for storing a lexicon including at leastone speech Voice User ID that is associated with a subscriber ID for theone or more active subscribers of the paging system; a monitor, coupledto the database memory and to the lexicon memory, for monitoring usersystem statistics for the paging system and accumulating the user systemstatistics in the database to determine a subset of the more activesubscribers, rank ordering the one or more subscriber IDs according tothe user system statistics, and grouping a set of the rank ordered oneor more subscriber IDs to include at least one speech Voice User ID inthe lexicon for voice data entry, the monitor further defining thelexicon in the lexicon memory for including in the lexicon the at leastone speech Voice User ID based on the accumulated user systemstatistics; a paging input for receiving a voice data for selecting asubscriber ID for the paging system; a controller, coupled to the paginginput and to the lexicon memory, for comparing the voice data to the atleast one speech Voice User ID in the defined lexicon for determining amatch between the voice data and one of the at least one speech VoiceUser ID of the defined lexicon, and for selecting a subscriber IDassociated with a matching speech Voice User ID for the paging system; amessage memory coupled to the controller for storing a message includinga pager address information associated with the selected subscriber ID;a paging encoder, coupled to the message memory and to the controller,for encoding a message for sending the encoded message to one or morerecipient paging units that correspond to the pager address informationassociated with the selected subscriber ID; an output controller,coupled to the paging encoder and to the controller, for sending theencoded message to the one or more recipient paging units; a systemconsole coupled to the controller and in response to the controllerdetermining that no match is found between the voice data and the atleast one speech Voice User ID of the defined lexicon, the controllerrouting a call handling operation to the system console for assistanceby an operator; and a speech playback unit, coupled to the systemconsole and to the controller and in response to the controllerdetermining that no match is found between the voice data and the atleast one speech Voice User ID of the defined lexicon, playing back thevoice data at the system console for audible reception by an operator.